The Spice in your Life
by OurHumanExperience
Summary: Samritha is coerced into spending part of her summer at Austenland with her best friend. However, both of them forgot Britain's relationship with India during the Regency Era - politics that Austenland is expressing dedicatedly. Will Samritha survive the 19th century - and maybe learn a little about love in the process?


**Chapter 1 – Peer Pressure at its Finest**

Samritha looked out the lettered glass window of a frequented coffee shop in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Her latte had long since turned lukewarm, and the barista on cleanup duty was giving her aggravated looks from the corner of her eye. She gripped her mug in her fingers, proof that she still had the right to stay and tried to control the feeling of overstaying her welcome.

_I need to find one of those undiscovered cafes, _Samritha thought to herself. _A place where the employees would be glad for my company_. She had just begun to contemplate leaving when the door flew open, causing another barista to jump and burn his hand against the machine as the bell and wind chime clanged. A woman, wearing a Tiffany blue dress that matched her eyes and carrying multiple shopping bags, bustled in and made her way over to Samritha, plopping herself in front of her.

"You're late, Shannon," Samritha sighed. "Again."

"Guess what!" Shannon replied, ignoring Samritha's comment and smoothing down fly-aways from her blonde bun. "You know that summer abroad program that we've always wanted to do?"

Samritha immediately brightened. "You mean the Abroad programs office finally approved my petition to go to the Galapagos Islands?"

"Oh God, no! Who wants to look at birds? It's even better than that!"

Samritha slumped back into her seat as she looked at her roommate over the top of her glasses.

"So what are you talking about?"

"We get to go to England!" Shannon squealed excitedly.

"England? What are we going to do there? None of the England studies contribute to my major, and my scholarship won't cover it."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I can cover for you. I haven't even told you the best part yet!"

Samritha tried to interject, "Shannon, there's no way you can pay - "

"We're going to Austenland!"

Samritha's brown eyes widened in confusion. "What on Earth are you talking about? What is 'Austenland'?"

Shannon squealed and giggled in the Southern schoolgirl way that she hadn't quite outgrown. "Do you remember Jane Hayes from our first semester? She told me all about it! It's this place where everyone dresses up and acts like they're in one of Jane Austen's novels! And at the end, everyone goes to a ball and gets _proposed_ to! Jane even got her very own gentleman to bring home with her!" Shannon giggles again.

Samritha rolled her eyes, "I literally am not understanding what's going on. Why do you want to go to this Austenland? I know you like all the movies and all…anyway, I can't afford this whatsoever. And I'm not sure it'd be the right place for me. And it's the last summer before we graduate, anyway, so I should - "

"Oh, please! Please come with me! Papa doesn't mind – honest. He was actually glad you'd be there to keep an eye on me. He wouldn't let me go otherwise."

"Shannon," Samritha sighed.

"Plus, it's for my birthday! Please, please! I can't go without you!"

"Why not? I don't know much about that time period, and I can't imagine myself there. Why don't you ask Jane to go?"

"I asked her already, but she couldn't get the time off to go back."

Samritha tried to keep the hurt from showing on her face. Her best friend had already asked someone else. _You don't want to go, anyway, _she reasoned with herself.

"You've asked her already?"

"She can't go, though! Couldn't get the time off. And I've already got the tickets, so you have to come!"

Shannon got up to leave. "It's decided, then. I'll forward you your ticket and what to bring! I have to go and get fitted for some of the dresses I'm having made for the trip! I'm so excited!"

"But I haven't agreed –" Samritha unsuccessfully tried to say, but Shannon had already left the café, leaving a perfumed scent behind.

Samritha looked down at her unappetizing drink. _What on Earth? _She thought, as she got up to leave as well.

As she walked down the sidewalk, sunlight making her jeans appear to be the perfect shade of navy and her sneakers thumping rhythmically against the sidewalk, she thought of her middle school years. Back to her brief obsession with Jane Austen, when she'd bought a huge book with all of Jane Austen's novels (it was a pain to read because the book was too big to hold and read in bed) and watched all the movies – every single adaptation. Even a weird anime based on _Emma_. But once Samritha left something behind – once she'd ridden out her obsession with something – she could never go back. Going back meant tainting memories; and nothing ever quite felt the same the second time around.

Jane Austen was how Samritha met Shannon. Their middle school play was an adaptation of _Pride and Prejudice _(which failed completely – especially because the kids kept using fake British accents), and Shannon had wanted so dearly to be Elizabeth Bennet. Her mother had had dresses made for her role back then, too. And after the play, Samritha and Shannon had begun to hang out, forming a loose Jane Austen book club that blossomed into friendship. But although Samritha had outgrown her love for Austen, Shannon had not been able to quite completely leave it behind. She wasn't as avid as she was when she was a child, but she still watched every _Northanger Abbey_ (Samritha rolled her eyes at the thought) and _Mansfield Park_ she could get a hand on. She'd even brought her DVDs with her to New York.

_I think she's just obsessed with the idea of love,_ Samritha thought to herself. _But Austenland? What's so special about a place like that?_

**Hello, and thank you for checking out this **_**Austenland **_**fanfic! Although there aren't very many fanfics for **_**Austenland**_**, I had an idea and have mapped out the story, so I wanted to give it a try. This story will be a combination of references from the movie as well as the novel; I'll just pick and choose what works for my plot, and I'll clarify anything that needs it. What do you think of Samritha so far? Shannon? Please rate, review, and let me know what you think! **


End file.
